


Rumors

by angelskuuipo



Series: Trouble [2]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Future Fic, GFY, Gen, Post-Series, not comic compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelskuuipo/pseuds/angelskuuipo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’d heard a rumor that he was still alive, or undead, or whatever the proper term was, but didn’t really believe it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rumors

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Look What Just Walked Through the Door](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1084241) by [angelskuuipo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelskuuipo/pseuds/angelskuuipo). 



> One last gasp of fic before the New Year. Yay! I honestly hadn’t planned to continue what I started in Look What Just Walked Through the Door, but I was inspired and I had left it open for that possibility. I don’t know if I’ll write their talk or anything after or not. We’ll just have to wait and see, but for now, have some Willow POV! Un-betaed, but I’ve read it over several times. If you seeing any glaring mistakes, please point them out gently and I’ll fix it. I hope y’all enjoy it and Happy New Year! May 2014 be a whole lot better than 2013!
> 
> Written: December 30, 2013
> 
> Word Count: 967

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She’d heard a rumor.

She’d heard a rumor that he was still alive, or undead, or whatever the proper term was, but didn’t really believe it. He and the gang in LA had disappeared from the supernatural radar after the fall of Wolfram & Hart. All she’d been able to find at the time was that Gunn had died in the alley of the Hyperion, but that was all. The other Scoobs, except for Faith, had been pretty adamant about not getting involved, and while they hadn’t agreed, had actually really wanted to know what had happened, they had reluctantly directed their attentions elsewhere. It wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of work to do in getting the new Council set up. She did make a point to scry for him off and on for a few years after Los Angeles, but never got any hits. Eventually she concluded that they’d all died in LA and had said farewell.

Time moved on, for everyone but her. While everyone around her aged, she still looked twenty-five. It wasn’t something they talked about, but her apparent immortality made thing difficult sometimes. Buffy, Xander, Faith, and Giles all passed away, leaving her and Dawn to head the Council. Dawn was still going strong at 75, but had started talking about retiring and Willow, well, she was tired.

She and Dawn had agreed that Willow could take a couple of months off before Dawn made her final decision. That’s when the rumors about Angel started cropping up. She had the time now, and was maybe feeling a little nostalgic and thought, why not?

Willow eyed the name of the club, _Salus_ , and smiled wryly. Well, the name was fitting anyway. Taking a fortifying breath, she entered the club and blinked at the strength of the wards as she passed through. Whoever was running the place was serious about it being a safe place.

She looked around for a moment and had to admit that it was really nice. It was nothing like what she remembered of the _Bronze_ or _Caritas the 3rd_. It felt…good, like a place she could feel comfortable and welcome in, and she hadn’t felt that in longer than she cared to remember.

Turning towards the bar Willow met a pair of once-familiar brown eyes and she faltered. Well, shit. The rumor was true. She hadn’t exactly planned for that possibility and didn’t really have any idea of what she would say to him. There was sixty years and change between them and a lot had happened in that time. She assumed he had to be harboring some pretty heavy thoughts about her, about all of the Scoobs, considering how their last interactions had gone, but maybe time had mellowed them out.

She could take the coward’s way out and leave, but that wasn’t really her style. And honestly, if she wasn’t going to talk to him, why had she gone looking in the first place? As she walked towards him she studied him to see if the years had wrought any changes. It was a silly notion, he was timeless after all, but as she got closer she thought there might be a little gray at his temples that she didn’t remember being there before, and had he always had those lines at his eyes? If anything, he was even more handsome than she remembered.

He looked like he couldn’t decide whether he was happy to see her or not, and she could absolutely relate, but she took the initiative and kissed him on the cheek, his warm cheek- what?, in greeting. “Hello, Angel.”

She gave him points for not hesitating in returning her kiss. “Willow. This is a surprise.”

Oh, he was the master of understatement, wasn’t he? “Yeah, you could say that.” She could feel the smile on her face twist a little into something less than pleasant and she looked away to gather her composure again. So much time had passed. So much had happened. There was so much she didn’t know and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know it or not. Still, this was what she’d set out to learn when she went chasing the rumor and she wasn’t going to back out now. She took another fortifying breath and looked at him again. “I guess we should talk.”

He didn’t say anything; just looked at her for a long moment before he leaned over the bar and picked up another glass. He cradled it in his hand with another one that was half full and picked up the bottle of Glenfiddich next to him with the other. He gestured towards a door on the other side of the bar. “Come on. It’ll be quieter in there.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if it was his office or if he knew the owner or what, but she didn’t say anything as she moved towards it. Whatever was going to happen, privacy would definitely be preferable. 

She could feel his gaze on her back like a touch and blinked a little at the realization that he might find her attractive. Huh. That was unexpected. And as she thought about it, not entirely unwelcome either. A lot had changed since they last saw each other. She wasn’t the girl exploring her sexuality that he’d known. She was a woman grown and knew what she liked. And Angel, well, he had a few centuries of experience to draw on and that could only lead to good things. It might be kind of interesting to explore that a little bit. She had nothing but time.

But first, they had to catch each other up on the last sixty years or so. That would be fun. Really.

Where was an apocalypse when you needed one?

-30-

**Author's Note:**

> Latin Translation according to Google Translate:
> 
>  _Salus_ = Salvation, Haven


End file.
